Joseph Wald
Joseph "Joe" Wald was an anti-government American terrorist and leader of a militia in the beginning of the "24"'s second season. He was portrayed by character actor Jon Gries. Backstory Five years prior to Day 2, CTU agent Jack Bauer was undercover as "Jack Roush" with Wald and his crew, including Eddie Grant, Chris Jones and Scott Owen. Wald believed that he was giving the "power back to the people" as an American extremist. Jack's time undercover led to Wald's arrest and incarceration for a number of years. After Wald got out of prison, Nina Myers came to him to contract him to blow up CTU Los Angeles. During his second meeting with her, he was given the schematics to CTU, and Eddie Grant took some pictures of Myers from down the block. Wald never learned her name during their interactions. Shortly prior to Day 2, Wald was again set up for a trial, and the key witness against him was Marshall Goren. In exchange for testifying against Wald, Goren would be cleared of charges of kidnapping and child pornography. Day 2 Character Summary On the morning of the CTU bombing, Wald stayed in his Simi Valley hideout at 221 Canyon View Road, which was armed with a guard dog, security cameras, and a panic room. He received a call from Eddie, learning that Jack had killed Goren and arrived at Eddie's repair garage. He later learned that Jack would be replacing Dave in Eddie's mission to bomb CTU. After CTU was successfully bombed, Eddie called to say he and the others were coming over. A short while later, Jack arrived at Wald's apartment on his own, saying that Eddie and the rest of the crew were dead. Jack insisted that Wald let him in. When he did, Jack pulled his gun on Wald and told him that he had killed Eddie, Scott and Chris for resisting arrest. He forced Wald to put down his shotgun and made him sit down. Taking Wald's shotgun, Jack asked him who told Wald to attack CTU. He explained that CTU was a secondary target as part of a larger attack to detonate a nuclear weapon somewhere in Los Angeles at some point during the day. Joe thought that Jack was lying, but Jack said that Wald had one last chance to tell the truth. Before Jack could continue, Wald's pitbull jumped and attacked Jack. It viciously bit at his arm, and while Jack was distracted, Wald took the opportunity to run outside. Jack shot the dog, and ran after Wald. Jack followed him out to a shed in the garden, which he found to be a safe room guarded with a metal door. Jack demanded that Wald open the door, but Wald did not respond. Jack found a pickaxe and, as Wald watched via a security feed, began to hack at the wall in the hopes of breaking through. When he did, however, he found a steel wall behind and realized that he would not be able to hack through that. He sat down and told Wald that a tactical team was on its way, and that the people behind the attack wanted to destroy the country, which Jack believed to be opposed to Wald' ideologies. He laughed at the irony of the situation: Joe was opposed to the government because he felt it to be too powerful, but as it stood Joe held all the power. Jack questioned what he was going to do with it. After about fifteen minutes, Jack became increasingly frustrated. He told Wald that the tac team would be there within two minutes and the situation would end with Joe either dead or in prison. He told Wald that he had one last chance to do the right thing. When Joe didn't respond, Jack attempted to shoot his way in, until he ran out of shotgun shells. Wald, who was listening on Jack's every word, decided to unlock his panic room door. Jack, with his gun trained entered and told him to drop the gun. There, Wald told him that the woman who gave him the plans, only saw him twice with instructions. Seeing no way out of going back to prison, Joseph Wald committed suicide by shooting himself in the head, but not before giving Jack the file. Jack searched through the files and found the contact to be Nina Myers. Category:Deceased characters Category:TV show characters Category:24 characters Category:Villains Category:Incarcerated Category:Male characters Category:Characters Category:Death by suicide Category:Characters played by Jon Gries